The linked article explains really well what this change entails (short version: not much for many websites, as nearly everyone will probably already have these kinds of details if not in their footer then almost certainly on a contact or legal info page), but I’ve still got a few burning questions — mostly to do with fairly inane stuff that only web geeks would think of.

Viral marketing, for example. It’s illegal if you don’t say who you are, so no more viral web marketing in the UK (and EU generally?). Crampin’ style since 2007.

This point from the article is interesting, too:

It is not sufficient to include a ‘contact us’ form without also providing an email address and geographic address somewhere easily accessible on the site. A PO Box is unlikely to suffice as a geographic address; but a registered office address would. If the business is a company, the registered office address must be included.

Say hello, email scraping harvesters. I realise that with filters improving this is theoretically becoming less of a problem, but even so — very few filtering providers are up to the standard of Gmail (usually the poster child for “Feel free to post your email address on the web” experiments), and are unlikely to become such in the near future.

If you’re a sole trader, I imagine you don’t have to list your home address, as you’re not considered a company. IANAL and IANAL who lives in the UK, but if the terminology is the same as in .au (which, given our common heritage, I’d imagine it wouldn’t be far from), that seems to be the logical interpretation.

If the business is a member of a trade or professional association, membership details, including any registration number, should be provided.

That seems… very hazy. If it means entities such as ICAA, that’s nearly fair enough, but for organisations like that membership is individual, not corporate. Same goes for trade unions, etc. The only equivalent I can think of here might be something like CRICOS provider numbers for educational institutions providing services to overseas students — though there are probably other examples one could give.

Perhaps our government has become more liberal than that of the UK, but, even so, it seems a rather odd stipulation. For electricians you might have green licenses and so forth — but, again, that is administered at an individual level, so you’re only really effectively getting this information out of sole traders: it seems unrealistic for larger organisations to publish this type of information.

Given the surprise it seems to have taken people by (the OUT-LAW publication is dated 20th December 2006 at the time of access), it seems unlikely that it will ever be very strictly enforced, and appears to be EU-associated politicking more than any intentioned policy. Some of its stipulations offer something in the way of consumer protection, but, really, if consumers aren’t already on the look out for this sort of information (or lack thereof) when participating in the web, then education in this regard should be far higher on the agenda than legislative measures. But perhaps that’s just my inner liberal getting cranky.

I should sleep before midnight sometime, but any chance of reading for pleasure would be abandoned in such an action. I miss that. It is now an expectation that literature will be boring, the only entertainment arising from an idea, a muse that stems from analysis: the magic of narrative abandoned. There is an expected path for all things, and no beauty is seen in the language employed–readings assume an anticipated form, for they are readings, not things to be read. For those, there is little time. The light glows brightest just before it blows… Ondaatje? I checked. The chase was thrilling, finding language that was not wholly alien and concepts that were beautifully expressed. There is no middle-english rhetoric for emphasis. We mightn’t be the pinnacle of civilisation, but it’s easy for things to feel that way when juxtaposing certain texts (this is not a blanket statement).

This post is winding down towards sleep, just clearing ideas. Anzac ideas are still there… again, not a blanket statement (I can’t think lucidly enough at present to post about it, so it may slip from my consciousness for a while… later.). A sequence of ideas drawn from snippets of experience. Which is, really, all we have. Exposition will come at some point though we know not when. Is it futile to rush that experience of discovery? Probably. It will come as equal shock irrespective of age, perhaps, to learn that there is deviation from what one perceives as ‘real’, ‘normal’. It is all fascinating.

Balancing that discovery with the development of skills is something else altogether. Where is there time for passive application?

Next week things will improve. Apparently uni students never develop normal sleeping patterns whilst still studying. Tempting not to bother trying ;-)

Now… I must pack and then sleep. Or sleep and pack tomorrow morning. I know other people have far greater commitments and are juggling far more at present, which is… simultaneously humbling and incomprehensible. It should be a good weekend.

We’ve been dutifully feeding it into babelfish and various other online translators, just to give foreign-language spammers an opportunity to make their impact on their target audience.  Spam email IS effective, ladies and gentlemen; whilst I wouldn’t normally give any normal spam a second glance,

*categorised, mark as “read”, filed in the spam folder (4085 messages)*

foreign language email (n.b. there are no images in ANY of these emails, only the occasional text-only link… if there were images, I wouldn’t have opened them.) gets translated, and then read!  I even clicked on a link or two (after ascertaining that there were no identifying features to the URL — e.g. email campaign success tracking/address skimming)!!!

The actual content of the emails is… interesting (or questionable.)  For the most part, they are political messages of one kind or another — it is not immediately clear what they are trying to say — the general gist of it seems to be that EU immigrants are bad, criminal people, and shouldn’t be allowed into the country or welfare.

One message reproduced here for your convenience:

Immigration wave of Eastern European people on social security fears Munich(rpo). Hans Werner sense, president institute for economic research has inthe ‘Sueddeutschen Zeitung’ before a solid immigration wave of EasternEuropean people on social security to Germany warned. The European Unionembodied transition periods for employees, but unemployed persons mightimmigrate immediately and would have from the outset ‘Anspruch on all socialLeistungen’. This regulation is grotesque and the Western European welfarestates will destroy. Only a change of the European Union condition can stillprevent. The consequences of the liberality guideline for migrations withinthe European Union, approved of by the European Union parliament, are ‘vonpolitics and public totally uebersehen’ , the economist criticized. EastEuropeans may come during a transition period of several years ‘nicht asemployees. As independent ones and not an employed person persons may dothem itself however immediately in Germany niederlassen’, explained sense.‘Von beginning on does not have also that employed person requirement on allsocial achievements of the state as more native. That becomes many, whichare in the poorer regions of Europe at home, arranges, into the rich welfarestates of the European Union wandern.’ The incentives are over powerful. TheGerman social welfare assistance is five times as highly as slowakischerwages. The forthcoming poverty migration made of Eastern Europe will erodethe Western European welfare states: ‘Die states will back-screw theirachievements in a kind deterrence competition, because none become the goalof the welfare migrations will’, and ‘im final result could be Europe onlyas socially, as it America today ist’. In order to turn away this, theEuropean Union states ‘das right of the migration would have into theSozialstaat’ paint: The homeland would have to remain responsible for thesocial security benefits at not employed person immigrant, demanded the ifopresident.

Babelfish’d, not human translation, hence the… obscure… nature of it all.

All this poses an interesting question in terms of email-marketing/spam: would you get a higher market penetration by sending foreign-language messages, and a babel link?

Possibly not… not everyone is as weird as myself, and most probably still wouldn’t bother.  I imagine they get a high enough clickthrough by simply sending out pr0n email… sad, but probably true.

So has anyone else been receiving this kind of email?  Does anyone speak/translate German fluently and receive this kind of email (i.e. can you make more sense of it than babelfish’d english does?)